THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME MOVIE REVIEW

MEMBERS:
Carabbacan, Vj Angeline B.
Javier, Alexis F.
Lemu, Henry Ace R.
Madolora, Miraflor L.
Padua, Christine Mae P.
Sablay, Sheila Mae T.
Saet, Jonathan N.

MARCH 13, 2019

I.INTRODUCTION
Victor Hugo, a poet and novelist, was born in 1802 and belonged to the Romantic
Movement although he studied law in his youth, he never worked as a lawyer but took
writing instead. Hugo’s mother is the one that encourage him to devote his life to literature.
He’s writing style was innovative and recognizable. In 1831, Victor Hugo published his most
famous novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. The writer worked on the book for 2 years,
in which he described the life of the hunchback “Quasimodo” who was treated as a monster
and feared by the locals. He died in May 22, 1885 at the age of 83.

In 15th century Paris, Clopin the puppeteer tells the story of Quasimodo, the misshapen but
gentle souled bell ringer of Notre dame, who was nearly killed as a baby by Claude Frollo
was forced by the archdeacon of Notre dame to raise Quasimodo as his own. Now a young
man, Quasimodo is hidden from the world by Frollo in the bell tower of the cathedral. But
during the festival of fools, Quasimodo, cheered on by his gargoyle friends victor, Hugo and
Laverne, decides to take part in the festivities, where he meets the lovely gypsy girl
Esmeralda and the handsome soldier Phoebus. The three of them find themselves ranged
against Frollo’s cruelty and his attempts to destroy the home of the gypsies, the court of
miracles. And Quasimodo must desperately defend both Esmeralda and the very Cathedral of
Notre Dame.

The setting happens to the sanctuary cathedral and tower. Sanctuary because it is
Quasimodo’s safe place too but Frollo, attack it just to find a gypsy and Quasimodo. Tower
where Frollo wants to kill Quasimodo and Esmeralda but he doesn’t, he fall from the ground
with a hot surface and that cause of his death.
II.BODY
~Analysis of Characters
 Quasimodo- The protagonist in the Novel. The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Quasimodo is an abandoned child left at Notre Dame and adopted by Frollo.
Hideously deformed, he has a giant humpback, a protrusion coming out of his chest,
and a giant wart that covers one of his eyes. He is also deaf. His heart is pure, and this
purity is linked to the cathedral itself. Indeed, his love for Notre Dame’s bells and for
the beautiful sound of their ringing represents is only form of communication. The
whole of Paris ironically enjoys Quasimodo’s singing while at the same time detesting
him for his ugliness. His name literally means “half-made”. Quasimodo is treated like
a different person. He was bullied by the people of Notre Dame. He was never going
out in the sanctuary but during the celebration of feast of the fools, he got out and
joined the feast. But they thought that Quasimodo’s face is just a mask. Quasimodo is
kind and have a grateful heart because Quasimodo loves Esmeralda but Esmeralda
can’t even love him back because she loves Phoebus, but he try/choose to save
Esmeralda in the execution we think that it is impossible but in the last past,
Quasimodo prove that it can be possible because he wants to make sure the sake of
Esmeralda.

 La Esmeralda- The lost daughter of Sister Gudule. She is an attractive women and a
beautiful gypsy dancer who is adored by the public, pretty much everyone in Paris is
in love with Esmeralda. And Phoebus love of her life. She is rarely seen without her
clever goat djali. She keeps an amulet and other trinkets around her neck to help her
find her parents. Actually, that's not quite true. People either love her or hate for being
a witch, or both. Really, though, Esmeralda is just a girl trying to navigate through a
mean world. She wonders who her parents are, she naïvely falls in love for the first
time, and she performs good deeds when she can—while trying to brush off her two
haters, Frollo and the Sack Woman.

 Frollo- A priest at Notre Dame, Frollo is also the novel’s main antagonist. However,
he is not a typical evil character bent on causing pain and suffering; instead, he is very
bright and compassionate. He extends the same compassion to Quasimodo, who he
tries to mold into a scholar just like his brother by teaching him how to read and write.
The hunchback does becomes both a symbol of failure for Frollo as well as powerful
tool of vengeance to wreak his frustrations out on the world. His obsessive lust for La
Esmeralda causes her to be executed and Quasimodo to be tortured. No matter how
hard he tries to make her love him, he only ends up causing her pain. He is very
abusive to his power. He burns all houses and villages just to find Esmeralda.
Sometimes, love causes good and evil, but it will depend on how the person use this
love for evil of for good, Frollo, is a greedy and obsessive character, he thinks that no
one can stop him in all of his actions, but he’s wrong about that thought, because
Quasimodo turned him wrong and made him to face the world of hell.
 Phoebus- The captain of the king’s archers. Phoebus makes a convincing show of
returning her affections, but merely wants a night of passion. Captain Phoebus never
try to save La Esmeralda. He betrayed Frollo because La Esmeralda too. Phoebus
never try to save Esmeralda in the execution. He’s in love to Esmeralda by her beauty,
dance, and actions which he falls in love by her appearance at first but at the end
they’re truly in love with each other.

 Djali- La Esmeralda’s goat. Djali can perform magic tricks and spell the name
Phoebus out of a group of letters. At La Esmeralda’s trial Djali is accused of being
possessed by the devil. Djali is so cute. Djali is a Pet that can help Esmeralda to trick
people or like a dog as human’s friend.

 Gargoyles (Victor, Hugo and Laverne) - They are a trio of anthropomorphic

gargoyles belonging to Notre Dame Cathedral. Since Quasimodo’s arrival in the bell
tower as an infant, the gargoyles have served as his best friends and guardians. They
also comfort Quasimodo when he feels down. They’re the “best friend” or considered
as a family of Quasimodo, who are always with him in his childhood until he grew up.
They seek for the best for their friend Quasimodo, in his love for Esmeralda.

 Archdeacon- Is the priest condemning Frollo for his cold blooded murder of an
innocent gypsy woman on the steps of Notre Dame Cathedral, as well as his
attempting to murder the woman’s baby. Though Frollo refuses to accept
responsibility for his crimes, the Archdeacon points out that if he does not repent, God
will punish him. Considering this for a brief moment, Frollo agrees to listen to the
Archdeacon, who tells him to care for the baby and raise him as if he were his own
son

 Old Heritic- he is an old man. During the Festival of Fools, his interest is to be free,
he is freed after Esmeralda uses his cage to roll down the streets of Paris. However, he
is later freed from his cage before the old prisoner is put in the stocks, where he
shouts “dang, it”.
III. Socio-cultural Issues

 Discrimination- One of the very big problems in the Philippines. It could be

anywhere. Discrimination is the unfair treatment of a person especially in
appearance. Like Quasimodo, he is very different to other people. No one treats
him in a good way. No one likes him. This problem is still going on. We need to
control ourselves by treating someone or something.

 Abuse of Power- Frollo’s Power abuses it. The abuse of Frollo’s Power
represents the politics in our country. Abuse of power is the commission of an
unlawful act, done in an official capacity, which affects the performance of
official duties. Like Frollo, because of abusing his power, he is now untrustable by
the other.

 Bullying- Bullying is now a trend because some people bullied others for just an
enjoyment. They bully but not knowing what was the truth, all we know that it is
bad but we continue doing it. Like Quasimodo the ugliest person in Notre Dame.
He is being bullied when someone take off their mask one by one. They thought
Quasimodo is wearing a mask but they aren’t. He was bullied by throwing
vegetables and fruits to him.
III. CONCLUSION
~ THEME
 THEME OF APPEARANCES
“Do not judge the book by its cover”. Well, the saying exists because people do
tend to judge covers. Sometimes, an entire identity is constructed around a cover.
It means, we must not judge a person by its physical appearance nor he is a Kind
hearted man in the inside. In the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, the idea that you
can’t judge a book by its cover was applied to Quasimodo, the character most
ruthlessly judged on the basis of his appearance. He was declared to be the ugliest
person in Paris, during the Parade, he was attacked by the crowd and Quasimodo
was pitifully embarrassed by the people, especially on his master, Frollo. But
inside, He’s a kind hearted man who only wants a true happiness.

 THEME OF FATE AND FREE WILL

The character who’s most into this idea is Frollo. He’s not really one to believe
in choosing his own adventure. For him, it’s all about fate as a kind of inescapable
web. But fate seems to have a hand in more than just Frollo’s wicked designs. He,
like the other characters in the novel, is more caught up in it than he thinks- and
fate, we’d like to point out, seems to have a way of not quite letting you know
what it’s got in store for you. Everything is way too coincidental in this novel for
us not to see the hand of fate behind everything that happens. While Frollo asserts
that everything is the work of fate, it’s more his belief in fate than fate itself that
drives him to do the things he does.

 THEME OF LOVE
“Love Is a many splendored thing.” “Love lifts us up where we belong.” “All you
need is love.” The point is that love does a lot of different things and looks a lot of
different ways to different people. Just take all the many ways people love each
other in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: Quasimodo’s love for Esmeralda,
Esmeralda’s love for Phoebus, Frollo’s love for Esmeralda. It’s like a love
hexagon. Love is what compels the characters in the novel to do ridiculous things.

 THEME OF LUST
The problem is, that desire is usually unrequited. What we end up with is a lot of
sexual frustration that then manifests itself in some pretty ugly ways. We're
talking, of course, mainly about Frollo here (though Phoebus is also a pretty lusty
character). Frollo's lust makes him jealous, possessive, evil, and violent—yet he
insists in calling his feelings for Esmeralda "love." We're not so sure, but
regardless of what Frollo calls his feelings, one thing is for sure: they drive him
crazy. Frollo's lust gets out of hand because he allows himself to use things like
sorcery and fate as justifications rather than recognizing his lust for what it is.
Frollo's lust gets out of hand because he knows that he isn't really supposed to feel
lust.
  THEME OF TIME
Time is not on anyone's side in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Time wears
history away, it wipes away peoples' existences, it leads to inevitable decay and
change… basically, and time paves things over and makes way for the new.
Individual lives are placed in huge historical contexts, and they can be easily and
irrevocably wiped out. Very few things are permanent in this book. Hugo gets into
several discussions about how the Paris of 1482 is so different from the Paris of
1831—and in some ways, 1482 Paris seems better than 1831 Paris. In any case,
there are two things in this novel that can withstand the test of time: a huge stone
cathedral, and a printed book. It's art that has the capacity to defeat time; maybe it's
the only thing that can. The novel argues that all evidence of history eventually
disappears. The novel argues that all evidence of history eventually disappears
unless we find a way to preserve it.

 THEME OF JUSTICE
“Justice” the process or result of using laws to “fairly” judge and punish crimes
and criminals Justice- or should we say "justice"?—is all over the place in this
novel, and it's not given a very flattering portrait. The medieval French justice
system, as Hugo portrays it, is lazy, inept, ineffective, cruel, and run by flippant
people who are more interested in getting to supper on time than in administering
actual justice. Not surprisingly, most of our characters don't fare so well within this
justice system. The novel criticizes a justice system that is all too happy to torture,
imprison, and execute people for pretty much any reason. The novel criticizes a
justice system that is run by people who are more concerned with their statuses
than with actual justice.

 THEME OF THE SUPERNATURAL

Most of this superstition is attached fears about the gypsies in The Hunchback of
Notre-Dame. The gypsies aren't actually practicing all that witchcraft; everyone
just thinks they are. The gypsies (along with Quasimodo) are what you'd call "the
other" in the story, meaning that they are viewed as exotic outsiders whose
customs are seen as weird and different by your average Jacques in French society.
The supernatural is used to demonize a particular group of people in the novel.
The supernatural is a convenient way for the justice system to prove people guilty
in the novel.
~SUMMARY
The story of Notre Dame is a masterpiece made by the author, Victor Hugo. The
characters in the movie, like the three major characters: Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Frollo,
they have a different issues to face with, that makes the story intense and unpredictable.
Quasimodo faces of, because of his physical appearance that results to be bullied and
unrequited love. Esmeralda is a good gypsy, who seeks for the heart of a kind hearted man
and not in appearance. Because of her beauty and actions, an obsessive love of Frollo
occurred, but she only love Phoebus, and Quasimodo, as a friend. The evil character in the
story, Frollo described as a greedy, he thinks that, no one can stop him but that’s thought by
him was burns down by Quasimodo. This story represents issues about discrimination and an
evil abusive power. The setting in the Cathedral makes a suspenful atmosphere, intense
emotions and a classic tension of romance which make the story to be called a “masterpiece”.
V. REFERENCES
According to the vintage news. (2017).victor hugo wrote the hunchback of notre dame in
part to raise awareness of undervalued gothic architecture in Paris.
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https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/04/23/victor-hugo-wrote-the-hunchback-of-
notre-dame-in-part-to-raise-awareness-of-undervalued-gothic-architecture-in-paris/
According to Kathy Li, (2018). Plot summary. Retrieve. March 13, 2019 from
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